NF7s Rev2 BIOS 21 saga... (bit of a long post)

(BTW, for system specs, check my sig out)

So I flashed my BIOS to BIOS 21. I made sure I got the one for the rev2 Board, flashed it on a UPS, just to make sure that Crappy Power (no relation to Austin) could corrupt it.

It went fine, until I restarted the PC. Lights on, but no-one home (fan/drives spin up, LEDs glow), but no beep. After much faffing, I got it to POST.

Firstly It wouldn't POST at 210Bus where it had been running happily under BIOS 19, then it would get as far as the screen past the SATA BIOS and just sit there blankly? After much BIOS fiddling, I got it to boot.

I ran it at 10.5x200 (as the chip seemed to slow at 11x200 or 3200+ settings (BTW, I know they're the same)) for around a month...

... Until one (probably) saturday morning it refused to POST. Lights on, no-ones home again... I think 'great', so:

I reset the CMOS, nothing.

I play with the (supposedly) 100bus jumper. Nothing.

I unplug everything (except the Power) from the motherboard. Still nothing.

Great! Time to remove all the cards in case on has gone manky... It gives a "no graphics beep."

So I put graphics back in. BEEP! OK!

Next is my modem (still on Dialup, I know it sux!). BEEP OK.

TV card next. BEEP. OK.

Must be my Santa Cruz sound card then. Best to try it in case it's not gone crappy. BEEP.

HOW ODD???

Anyways its POSTing again now...

So plug in DVD/cdrw cable, Both SATA cables, floppy cable, PATA drive, etc, etc...

Does the same thing it was doing before, getting past the BIOS info screen after the SATA BIOS. Odd thing is, my old PATA drive will boot win2k.

What did I change last time??? Back into the BIOS, have a look around... Eventually get the firewire disabled...

... and she boots.

Note to self: remember the firewire.

Yesterday morning, I switch it on, and its a case of lights on, no-one's home again.

Great, I think, Not again!!!!

So i take out all the cards. Still no beep.

Unplug everything (except the power) from the board. Still no beep.

remove the RAM. still no beep. Unplug everything (except the board) from the PSU. STILL NO BEEP!!!!!!

It's a good job I've got a grade 1, else I'd have probly pulled all of my hair out by now...

Any further ideas apart from bin it and buy a new one. I read on here about battery removal.

Haven't tried that yet.

Getting a new 400W PSU from work tomorrow, just so I can prove it is/not my PSU (550W QTEC).

Also hoping to find a Duron in the office, so I can try that out to prove it is/not my CPU...

Im in the same boat. Im so ****ed I bought my NF7. I am begining to despise Abit for their problems.

Next round Im gonna get a DFI and not listen to the constant droning about getting an Abit board.

I should have never listened

I hate this mobo as well... F****ING M*****F****** WON'T FIX IT!! AND I AIN'T GOT MONEY TO BUY ANOTHER MOBO THOSE F******

My ram can do 215 at vdimm 2.94V and vdd 1.7, but the F***ING POS MOBO MULTIPLIERS DON'T WORK!!!!!!!!!

DeathAngelLST said:

I hate this mobo as well... F****ING M*****F****** WON'T FIX IT!! AND I AIN'T GOT MONEY TO BUY ANOTHER MOBO THOSE F******

My ram can do 215 at vdimm 2.94V and vdd 1.7, but the F***ING POS MOBO MULTIPLIERS DON'T WORK!!!!!!!!!

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damn... Sounds like someone needs therapy.

lol

Sounds like Abit needs to fix their problems, and pplz to stop snickering about getting a good NF7. They dont make em like they used to.

Im very disapointed with it and am ****ed about getting bad advice!

Okay... back on topic, no rants here... Sounds like the bios chip is gone. Something went wrong in the flash process.

This why one should not flash unless there is a specific reason to do so. Stuf happens.

I listened to all the hype about the NF7-S, bought one to replace my dying 8RDA+, and have never looked back. It's been a great board so far, 'cept I think I killed my SATA a couple months back...

JoT said:

I listened to all the hype about the NF7-S, bought one to replace my dying 8RDA+, and have never looked back. It's been a great board so far, 'cept I think I killed my SATA a couple months back...

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Ya know, it's amazing to me how this board works great for just about everyone. I was scepticle at first, but this is the best one I;ve ever put together. If you read between the lines and all of the swearing, some people just expect too much and some just flat out don't know what they are doing. It's always much easier for the tradesman to blame his poor work on his tools rather than sharpening his his skill.

Nah, its not that. Many pplz including myself have gotten the new batch of NF7s

The new batches blow. I know OC550 is having the same problem as myself. None of the multi higher than 10x work.

Using 10.5x and above almost require 2x the voltage to get stable.

Im not kidding. I cant get 2.2 with 10.5, even with 1.95v Yet 10x works fine with 1.7v

It is sad to see that many of us got screwed, but it is very true. The NF7 is an aweful board now.

Its plagued with even more problems than the older ones. Heres what the new ones problems include:

Problems:

10.5x and higher multis require 2x the voltage/power for stability

Power fluctuates by .5+ volts. This continues to happen even with active MOFSET cooling.(infact they're not hot at all!)

Chipset requires atleast 1.7v and most likely 1.9v to become stable beyond 220

Must raise AGP voltage to 1.8 to gain grafix stability.

All voltage requirement / per clock, has increased by a whole .1v (ie 2.3 @ 1.65v normal ----> NF7 1.75/1.775)

Southbridge is cool to the touch and sinking it does nothing.

Is unresponsive and uinstable with any BIOS revision including all modified D10.


That being said, you guys may not be having problems, but I and many other pplz are!

But surely if it was a bad Flash, it wouldn't have worked ever again, not worked OK for a few weeks then crash, and after another few weeks crash completely. & there was a reason, the new SATA BIOS Rev... (hmm, woner if that's where the problem lies- after the flash it barfed once at 30ns, so I switched it back to 1ms in the PCI timings to save losing a month's worth of work again...)

I'm hoping it might just be a cr@ppy PSU. At work recently, we've been replacing PSUs a-plenty where they've all just died with the same symptoms (lights on, no-one home). Although these PCs are getting on for 3 years old, and aren't built using the best quality components I've seen. But then The QTEC in mine ain't really, either... (Still haven't collect that cheapo 400W yet)

I'm fully UPS'd up (after having two old boards 'pop' components), so I doubt if it's external power influences...

Have any of you with multi & FSB problems tried an earlier BIOS? My Comp ran sweetly at 215 (but was a bit warm) with BIOS 19, but with 21 it wouldn't run at over 200FSB.

-- On a different note: ------------

To all of you who are gloating/complaining about how good/bad your board is... Not every chip (never mind board) is created equal.

In the good old days, someone who had nearly the same setup (same CPU/Board/cooler) combo as me managed to get 133FSB on a Celly 566C, where all I could hit was 118...

... Still, it was over a Gig ;¬)}

To all of you who are gloating/complaining about how good/bad your board is... Not every chip (never mind board) is created equal.

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*APPLAUDES* PREACH ON MY FRIEND, PREACH ON.............

i couldnt get over 227 with the d14 bios, problems with multi's, temps etc, just the usual *****, switched to the original d10 bios cos i dont use sata, problems solved, speed in sig, solid as a rock

BartonBadBoy said:

*APPLAUDES* PREACH ON MY FRIEND, PREACH ON.............

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N.B. Look at my *LOVELY BLUE* stars... I've earned the right to keep peace/ preach... :¬)}

IT'S DEAD. (Death declared at 16:37 on the 21/2/04)

Tried the New Duron and New PSU yesterday. I think a new (non-ABIT) board is called for...

kagee108 said:

Okay... back on topic, no rants here... Sounds like the bios chip is gone. Something went wrong in the flash process.

This why one should not flash unless there is a specific reason to do so. Stuf happens.

Click to expand...

Yea, ABIT is to blame for your bad flash. ABIT is to blame for all your computing ills. For that matter, ABIT is to blame for all the worlds problems... until the next time your flash goes badly and you start trashing the maker of whatever new board you buy.